Behind the Façades in France: What expats and the mainstream media (French and American alike) fail to notice (or fail to tell you) about French attitudes, principles, values, and official positions…

Saturday, January 23, 2010

And the Meme Goes on

Dissipating even in the usual quarters, ”Occupation fever” is still all the rage at Le Monde. It’s grown obsessive enough that Sarkozy is being accused of giving in to the imaginary dialogue French sentiment thinks it’s having with “Barak”

Mr Sarkozy puts the emphasis on the international conference he wants to call, even if the U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, who wants to work step by step, openly thought the idea premature. M. Sarkozy avait annoncé au début du drame qu'il se rendrait en Haïti "dans quelques semaines" . Mr Sarkozy had announced earlier that he would address Haiti "in a few weeks".

Presumably to appear to be doing a great deal by “calling a conference”, even if you’re trying to look like you’re being caring and generous on the evidence of other peoples’ resources.Les liens historiques entre la France et Haïti ne figurent pas en haut de la liste des priorités de Barack Obama .

But following closely is the most absurdly arrogant thing I’ve ever heard:

Tailoring policy to the historical ties between Haiti and France, especially when the relationship was that of operating is as a slave colony, are assumed to be an American responsibility in the middle of dealing with a humanitarian crisis.

Apparently, the only way to make the crocodile tears go away, is for the US to help Haiti less so as to alleviate the misery of the Élysee on the pretext of constructing maximum PR Kumbaya. If they feel that so strongly about their connection with Haiti, why don’t they put that energy into helping Haiti instead of baiting the United States? Simple: the French public has thought rarely of and cared little for Haiti normally, except as a tourist destination where part of the entertainment involves getting a giggle out of the Creole language. The ties aren’t that strong, even with the sure-to-be forthcoming declaration that “we’re all Haitian”.

The Le Monde reader commentary, on the other hand, ranges from kind to feral to foggy, with blatherings of the sort that reflects on opinions and outburst as their assumed basis in fact.

Still, it’s strange that even the Haitians are very afraid of this American influence, especially since it seems that Americans are more preoccupied with putting their men to distributing water and food. Go to the U.S. sites and you'll see.

How DARE they undermine these people by making them dependant on their food and water! And look at that website! They’re claiming to NOT be doing what we say they are!

However it should come as no surprise to see that in large part the sacrifices nations make to aid those in need are seen as nothing more than a great game, one that needs to be one for no reason other than megalomaniacal fantasies of world domination that too many Europeans harbor with no explanation of purpose. They just want to tap Mami because they want to tell themselves that they can.

There’s only one option to act big and to live up to the Americans diplomatically and operationally: Europe. No offense to adherents of the "Grande Nation", but this requires compromise. Otherwise we choose to stay pure, independent and go unheard.

Who knew that the tragedy of the Haitians could ever be all about them! So much so, that outsourcing their inaction to the other Europeans becomes an option - with the hope that it will make them fit the strange obsession found widely that they should be some kind of masters of the universe.

It has absolutely nothing to do with wanting to make an effort to be effective and helpful in the world, it is clearly a fascination with having power over others, such as it was with the notion of a French rider on a German Horse, thinking that the horse would willingly by ridden.

Much in the way a portrait becomes a mirror, it explains the clinging to the obsessions they have about American capacity to act being malevolent. That invective is symptom of the accuser’s world view. That they can align with the opinions of unworkable notions of “world peace” is nearly irrelevant. The objective is not bearing responsibility or the satisfaction of putting an effort into doing what you can for the sake of the world, it’s to seek the thrill of having some kind of power over people who don’t look or sound like you.